


timed out

by seaweary



Category: All For The Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: M/M, Minor Violence, Slurs
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-07
Updated: 2019-09-07
Packaged: 2020-10-11 14:48:14
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,963
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20547920
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/seaweary/pseuds/seaweary
Summary: Andrew didn’t want to think about that, so he said nothing, just looked at Neil. Watched Neil look back, fists spasming at his sides as he tried to shake himself apart - to become whatever it was he was meant to eventually become. This was uncharted territory, and Hatford wasn’t exactly generous with information.





	timed out

**Author's Note:**

> I haven't written in years, but I have to jump back in sometime, right? This is just a sketch and I'm super tired, so forgive any errors/mischaracterizations.

Andrew didn’t look up from his game as Kevin slammed into their shared room, even when the freshman who’d followed him began to whine. This happened at least once a week. It wasn’t worth his attention, and he had gathering to do.

“Are captains even allowed to skip practice?” Jack demanded. Andrew teleported his character to a gathering area. He had an hour before the flowers withered and died, at least if he didn’t want to do this all again tomorrow. “What’s he doing, sleeping? Just because it’s fucking Monday doesn’t mean he gets out of practice. The rest of us are hungover, too! We were all out there!”

Kevin dropped onto a beanbag near Andrew and began to pull off his shoes. “This is the only time he’s ever missed practice, Jack.” His tone said he was barely hanging onto the last shreds of his patience - bitchy Kevin was close to the surface. Must have been a rough practice. 

“So what? You never miss practice. Why the hell aren’t you captain? You have more experience, and you’re older, and you’re a better stri-“ Same argument as last weekend. Andrew found a section of flowers and began to clear the node, ignoring Jack’s clenched fists and red, sweat-streaked face. 

Kevin sighed. “Neil practices twice as much as you do already. Missing a single practice isn’t going to impact his abilities. If you want to focus on something, focus on improving your passes. They’re sloppy and you’ll be a burden when the season starts unless you improve.”

“See? This is the kind of feedback a captain should be giving,” Jack snapped back, like he actually gave a fuck about how a captain should behave beyond trying to tear Neil down. “And you’re the one giving it. This just proves my point. Where the fuck is he?”

He was in the bedroom, sprawled out and sated. Sleeping - probably - as he had been for the last fourteen hours. Andrew hadn’t checked on him, just knew that the bedroom had been quiet and Neil hadn’t come out yet. 

Kevin knew where Neil was, too. The flick of his eyes to the bedroom door betrayed him. Jack’s jaw tightened. “Fine. I want him to tell me why he skipped. To my face. No more excuses. If he can’t hack it as captain, he shouldn’t be captain-” Andrew tuned the rant out and took a swig of his water, eyes still on the screen. 52 minutes left.

It had been a surprise, learning what Neil was, but it didn’t bother Andrew. The fact that Neil now took after the Butcher in most of the critical ways and was more valuable to the Moriyamas than ever was a net positive. Neil wasn’t comfortable with it, but Neil wasn’t comfortable with anything that reminded him of his father. It made it easier to keep him safe, though, so Andrew wasn’t complaining.

“- I’m going in there and asking him myself! No more excuses.” Jack stomped over to Neil’s bedroom door and hit the handle. Kevin froze. He didn’t want Jack to open that door, and Andrew doubted it was out of concern for the freshman. 

“Wait a second, Jack-“

Neil wouldn’t want to deal with Jack right now. Andrew’s fingers curled around the controller. “I wouldn’t,” he said evenly. Jack turned around with a sneer on his face.

“So you finally decided to join the conversation? What, were you too busy fucking each other last night to come to practice this morning, too?” Ordinarily, Jack didn’t give a fuck about Andrew beyond what it took to wind Neil up, but he was more than happy to yank Andrew in as one of those “fucking fags” when he brought himself up.

“No,” Andrew said simply. Warning delivered, he checked the timer again. 50 minutes. That was enough. He should be able to get what he needed before it ran out. 

If Jack’s timer ran out in the next five minutes, well. That solved a problem.

“Jack, pl- “ Andrew looked up at Kevin, eyes flat, and Kevin choked back the word he’d been about to say. He knew better. He really did. 

“Wake up, asshole!” Jack snapped, and threw the door open. 

There was dead silence for a second. Andrew knew what Jack was seeing: Neil, half-naked and asleep, sprawled face-down on two mattresses that had been shoved together to form one giant bed. 

It was completely opposite from how Neil usually slept - curled to the wall, tense as a rock - but then, last night had been the first time. Hatford had said it’d be different, that he’d be different. Neil had stumbled in - or as close to stumbling as an unnaturally graceful person could - the room late last night, the expression on his face the closest to contentment that Andrew had ever seen on it. He’d remembered to ask and Andrew had allowed him to drape himself, catlike, over Andrew and rub his scarred cheek (yet the scars were fading, just as Hatford said they’d would) against Andrew’s own. 

Marking, possibly. Possessive. Or maybe just being affectionate. It wasn’t clear with this new aspect of Neil, and Andrew hadn’t let it go further than that. He allowed the closeness, but not a kiss.

Neil had taken it in good humor, a purr - or maybe a snarl - vibrating in his throat, and collapsed on the bed, immediately asleep. Andrew had slept on a beanbag. 

“I fucking knew it,” Jack sneered, stepping into the bedroom. “Passed out and hungover. Some captain you are.” 

“Jack, don’t - “ Kevin tried to order, but it came out as more of a plea. Kevin knew what was in that room, even if Jack didn’t. He looked at Andrew with wide eyes, but Andrew ignored him. Jack had been warned. It was more than most got.

A split second later, Jack came flying out of the room, hitting the wall across from the door hard enough to send the plaster crumbling. Andrew clicked to another node. Must have tried to grab him. 

Neil stalked out a second later, shirtless and likely unaware of it. The scars were gone. Andrew fought the impulse to force Kevin and Jack out of the room. 

“What the fuck are you doing, Jack?”

“It’s ten a.m., asshole!” Jack snapped. “You missed practice.”

That did throw Neil off a bit - barely perceptible to someone who wasn’t Andrew, but Andrew saw it. Neil was bothered by the loss of control. Neil would be bothered more by the missing scars. The controller creaked in Andrew’s grip.

Neil’s uncertainty was gone in an instant, though, that terrible grin carving itself onto his face. “Oops.”

“Oops? You’re not qualified to be captain as it is, you should just give it up to Kevin-“

Andrew had heard enough, and was getting out of the beanbag when Neil struck, hand on Jack’s throat, teeth - fangs - bared. Fuck. “Ask Kevin if he wants to be captain.”

Jack was obviously shaken, but covered it up with a scoff. “What are those, implants? You think you’re so fucking tough because you come from the mob, Wesninski, but I know-“

Neil leaned in, grin widening. Too close. “What, these? You like them? I made them myself.” 

Jack’s face darkened and he started to struggle, gripping Neil’s arm. “Let me go, psycho!” 

That was enough. Andrew got up and grabbed Jack by the collar. It startled Neil enough that he stepped back, releasing his hold on Jack’s throat. “You. Out.” 

“Get the fuck away from me, Minyard. This is between me and-“

Andrew ignored him, shoving Jack toward the door until he was all the way out, and locked it behind him. He turned around to face the room. Kevin was gone - hiding in his room, no doubt - and Neil was just standing there, shuddering, eyes wild like he was on the very edge of his control. His arms were wrapped tightly around himself like he was trying to keep something in. 

Andrew stopped in front of him, noted the fangs, the glitter of Neil’s eyes. His ears were pointed and there was an unnatural gleam to his skin and hair. If he strained, Andrew could almost hear bells and a rustle of feathers - or maybe that was his imagination. Neil continued to shiver, staring at the door where Jack had left. He took a step forward, eyes locked on the door.

“Neil.” 

No response. “Neil.”

“Abram.”

Neil’s eyes snapped to him then. The predatory, vicious streak he had tried to hide was alive in his eyes - something at once alien and familiar. Andrew didn’t know how he felt about it. 

He didn’t want to think about that, so he said nothing, just looked at Neil. Watched Neil look back, fists spasming at his sides as he tried to shake himself apart - to become whatever it was he was meant to eventually become. It wasn’t time yet, though. It wasn’t a problem yet. For all Andrew knew, it would never be and they had years and years and years. This was uncharted territory, and Hatford wasn’t exactly generous with information. 

Andrew stepped around Neil, not touching, and sat back down in the beanbag chair. It took a few seconds, but Neil followed, dropping silently onto the other beanbag and staring unseeing at television. Andrew didn’t say anything, just picked up the controller and focused on gathering flowers. It hadn’t been long - he could probably still beat the timer.

The timer said 14 minutes when Neil finally shifted and let out a long, controlled breath. “I’m not even hungry, you know that? I haven’t eaten in over thirty hours and I’m not hungry.”

Andrew continued to tap away on the controller. “He said that’s normal.”

“Normal for him.”

“You are not him.”

Neil laughed. It sounded like it was wrenched from him. “I am in every way that matters, now.”

Andrew teleported to another node. “No. You are not.”

“Are you serious right now?” Neil gestured at the ears, the fangs, the savage beauty of his face. Andrew could almost hear the bells. “I look just like him. I act just like him, I feel just like-“

Andrew cut him off. “You are not the first person to have a father.”

Neil snorted. “It’s not the same and you know it.” He wasn’t engaging with this. Andrew focused back on the node and waited Neil out. It didn’t take long.

“How can you be okay after what I did?”

“You did what you need to survive.” Andrew said simply. “No more, no less.”

“I enjoyed it.”

“People usually enjoy eating. Biology wants us to keep eating.”

“Is this even biology, though?” Neil faced the TV again. “Is there a biology for this? Do I technically even have a - am I even -” 

“Stop being dramatic.” 

A couple minutes of silence, and then: “You’ve picked fifteen of that same flower already.”

Andrew didn’t deign to respond to that. He had sixteen. He needed fourteen more. Neil got off the beanbag and dropped down to the floor next to Andrew. “Yes or no?”

Andrew eyed him. “Yes.”

Neil climbed onto him and laid his head on Andrew’s shoulder. He could feel Neil’s breath on his neck, soft and summer-warm. Close enough to kiss. Andrew hated it. He stabbed at a button with a little too much force, listening to Neil breathe as he went back to picking flowers. 

Silence stretched long enough that he thought Neil was asleep. The timer was ticking down its last seconds when he heard him, words quiet enough that Andrew could pretend he didn’t hear.

“Does this… change things?”

Andrew let out a breath and picked the final goddamn flower. “Don’t ask stupid questions.” 

He felt Neil smile against his throat, and the timer ran out.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!


End file.
